or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America [Paperback]

Tony Horwitz
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

List Price: $19.00
Price: $13.45 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $5.55 (29%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Tuesday, May 21? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Paperback $13.45  
Image
Looking for the Audiobook Edition?
Tell us that you'd like this title to be produced as an audiobook, and we'll alert our colleagues at Audible.com. If you are the author or rights holder, let Audible help you produce the audiobook: Learn more at ACX.com.

Book Description

April 28, 2009

W hat happened in North America between Columbus's sail in 1492 and the Pilgrims' arrival in 1620?

On a visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he doesn't have a clue, nor do most Americans. So he sets off across the continent to rediscover the wild era when Europeans first roamed the New World in quest of gold, glory, converts, and eternal youth. Horwitz tells the story of these brave and often crazed explorers while retracing their steps on his own epic trek--an odyssey that takes him inside an Indian sweat lodge in subarctic Canada, down the Mississippi in a canoe, on a road trip fueled by buffalo meat, and into sixty pounds of armor as a conquistador reenactor in Florida.

A Voyage Long and Strange is a rich mix of scholarship and modern-day adventure that brings the forgotten first chapter of America's history vividly to life.


Frequently Bought Together

A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America + Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
Price for both: $25.41

Buy the selected items together


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wonderfully written, and heroically researched...Horwitz unearths whole chapters of American history that have been ignored."--The Boston Globe
"Poignant and hilarious . . . Riveting."--The Seattle Times
"History of the most accessible sort . . . full of vivid characters and wild detail."--The New York Times

"Entertaining, insightful . . . Rich with reading pleasure."--The Christian Science Monitor


 

 

About the Author

TONY HORWITZ is the bestselling author of Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic, and Baghdad without a Map. He is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and their sons, Nathaniel and Bizu.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (April 28, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312428324
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312428327
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

It's one of those books that will change your mind about much of the history you thought you knew. Jim Duggins, Ph.D.  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
The book is written well, with wit and humor and with a scope of interesting details. Israel Drazin  |  10 reviewers made a similar statement
Horowitz's book just rubbed me the wrong way. medievalReader  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy and informative June 4, 2009
By A. Rehm
Format:Paperback
Some people get turned off by Horwitz's light, popular style; he mixes his history with his own travelogues as he follows its trail, which means that parts of his books are about crappy hotel rooms and weirdos. All that fluff conceals a careful, sober researcher, though; when you're done breezing through one of his books, you'll realize that you learned quite a bit after all.

"A Voyage Long and Strange" covers the murky epoch between the original "discovery" of America and the 1620 Plymouth settlement, when men like Hernando de Soto and Cabeza de Vaca were wandering lost and starving through America, looking for gold and shooting everything else. Fascinating stuff.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Trail of Faded Footsteps May 18, 2009
Format:Paperback
There are around 40 counties, towns and cities in the United States that are named after Christopher Columbus, an explorer who never set foot in what is today the U.S.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Horwitz uses that fact to launch an exploration into the early adventurers on that vast landscape - including conquistadors, missionaries, pirates and brigands - through impeccable scholarship, humor and unique storytelling bolstered by his walking many of the areas that contain these faded footsteps in the dusty afterthought of history.

The first European who should be feted for the feat "awarded" to Columbus is Ponce de Leon, who landed in Florida in 1513. And it was French Huguenots who were the first Protestants to escape religious persecution in Europe by landing near what is now Jacksonville, Florida, and building a fort.

It certainly was a long and strange trip and one that has the twists and turns of incredible richness and drama. Horwitz brings those times back to life with vivid colors on a rich canvas that sheds light on the true facts and incredible fiction that continues to shape the debate on early America.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Full circle - Plymouth rock back to Plymouth rock November 14, 2009
Format:Paperback
First off, I enjoy historical writings written by journalists because they tend to add a more personal touch to the prose, something often missing in the pedantic-academic style of many professors. And, same as Horwitz, I have found myself relearning much of what was `taught' and forgotten. Pulling out my old college text that covers American history from Columbus to 1877 - I see about 19 pages in the front chapter covering 1492 to 1640. I now remember not remembering, because in all practicality, most of the history I was "taught' was my own myth; it never happened. This book is fun because it's like a road trip the rest of us would love to take, but can't, so we follow Horwitz around America and enjoy his discovery of how "American's don't so much study history as shop for it". Our ancestors chased all sorts of myths, discovering and creating truth and fact, that over time either got forgotten or recreated into new myths by more people following them. Columbus chased the "India" myth, the Spanish chased the gold myth, and each myth became melded to the next. The gory awful historical truths laid out next to the endearing myths, makes all our `relearning' more balanced and ultimately something we can enjoy to replace the blank or inaccurate sound bites remembered from our grammar school and college days. Thank you Mr. Horwitz.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars With a Few Distractions, an Enthralling Account of Discovery
In general I have enjoyed Tony Horwitz' ventures into history. I just wish he would perhaps stick more with history and let his own experiences slide a bit more into the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. R. Trtek
4.0 out of 5 stars I never knew.
Author traces the paths of the discoverers and clarifies the history, which much of it is fiction. Columbus never touched land that is now the USA. Who knew?
Published 3 months ago by Arthur R. Clarke
3.0 out of 5 stars Book
Book was interesting, but got a little boring after awhile. Would only recommend to readers REALLY interested in the subject matter.
Published 6 months ago by P. Babb
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, informative, and very interesting
I think that Horwitz is one of the best humor/history writers out there. His willingness to travel and learn about the history makes this book especially good. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Gerry Dincher
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Entertaining
Admitting an "ignorance" of early American history - discovery and colonization - not going much deeper than Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims - a lack of knowledge that most... Read more
Published 11 months ago by JoeV
5.0 out of 5 stars What You Should Have Learned About Early American History in School
If you went to high school in America (somewhere besides, say, Texas or North Carolina), you should be forgiven if you have no recollection of what happened between Columbus... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Hank Peace
4.0 out of 5 stars A Voyage Long and Revealing
Tony Horowitz extends his series of history-though-retracing-the-steps books with A Voyage Long and Strange, this time covering the conquest of the new world by europeans. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Sturmey Archer
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book
Wow! This is history the way I like it. Insightful, informative and fun to read and learn about. I used to love the travel writings of humorist P.J. Read more
Published 23 months ago by William Scalzo
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Tony Horwitz = Great!
Any long-time Tony Horwitz reader will love A Voyage Long and Strange. Part travelogue, part history, this book puts you in the places today that were so important to the vistors... Read more
Published on April 19, 2011 by R. Murdock
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great History Lesson
I have always enjoyed history and this book was a lot of fun to read. Although I new a lot about Columbus it was very interesting to learn about all of the other explorers that... Read more
Published on March 28, 2011 by H. Hoffman
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews


Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 



So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category